He rolled over and put his arm around her.
He held her until she stopped shivering, then started to turn away from her.
“Don’t let go of me,” Gisella said.
“I’m not a fucking saint,” Muller said.
“Neither am I, Herr Standartenfuhrer,” she heard herself say faintly, but very clearly.
Washington, D. C 5 January 1943 Although Ed Bitter was about to leave his wife and child and–at last-approach, at least, the field of battle, he, and they, were in much better shape than other families whose head had been ordered overseas.
For one thing, he didn’t have to worry about where Sarah and Joe would live. Just after Ed announced he was going overseas, his parents and Sarah’s father began a very polite but quite serious competition for the privilege of housing Sarah and Joe until Ed came home.
Thus, Ed’s mother argued that there was more than enough room in the Lake Shore Drive apartment. And besides, she’d love the chance to get to know her grandson better.
Joseph Child, on the other hand, argued that while it was of course up to Sarah, he thought she would be more comfortable in New York, as she had so few friends in Chicago. And besides, happily, a very nice apartment had just become vacant in a building “the bank owned” not far from his own apartment.
Sarah, Solomon-like, announced that if there was no objection, she would like to go to Palm Beach. Her father’s house there was, of course, closed. But there was the guest house, right on the beach, which could be easily opened. Six rooms were more than enough room for the two of them.
And even for her father or the Bitters, if they decided to drop in for a week or ten days. Besides, she said, Florida would be good for Joe.
With exquisite courtesy, the grandparents split the problem of transporting Sarah and Joe to Palm Beach. Joseph Child would come to Washington and provide Sarah company until the guest house in Palm Beach could be made ready. Pat Grogarty, who had been the Childs’ chauffeur more years than Sarah was old, would then drive Sarah and Joe to Florida, where Ed’s mother (who now liked to be referred to as’ Mother Bittep) would be waiting, “to help Sarah get settled.” Meanwhile, Ed had managed to convince both Sarah and the grandparents that he was simply moving from one desk assignment to another.
Not, in other words, to sea, much less to war. Though their anxieties about his safety annoyed him, he was nevertheless a little touched as well.
He was, after all, a professional naval officer, and the nation was at war.
He had obligations on that account.
But on the other hand, there was no point correcting their belief that because of his wound, he would no longer be required to go in harm’s way. So he had not let Sarah know that he was now back on flight status, despite the still-stiff knee.
The funny thing was that leaving Sarah and Joe turned out to be difficult, more difficult than Ed had imagined.
While he wasn’t madly, passionately in love with Sarah, he respected and admired her more than any other woman he had ever known.
She had character. She’d handled the shock of her pregnancy, for instance, in a really decent way. She’d accepted her share of responsibility, and told him straight off–and he was sure she had meant it–that he had no obligation or duty to marry her.
He had accepted, of course, his duty to legitimize his child, and would adhere to his wedding vow to “keep only to her, forsaking all others.” For her part, Sarah had agreed not only to an Episcopal wedding ceremony but also to raise Joe in the Christian faith. She was a splendid woman and a splendid mother, and she loved him.
On balance, their marriage was a good thing for both of them, even without considering Joe.
Ed had come, and this was rather unexpected, to really love his son.
That experience, in fact, was one of the reasons he was sure he didn’t love Sarah. He had never felt for her anything like the emotion he felt when his son smiled at him or gave him a wet kiss. Such things really made Ed melt. With Sarah, he never melted. Yet marriage seemed a very cheap price indeed for having a son like Joe.